New USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service(NASS) data has been released from the Tenure, Ownership, and Transition of Agricultural Land survey. As reported by Todd Neeley in Progressive Farmer, 80% of the national rented farmland is owned by non-farmers, and a mere 5% of existing farmland is expected to transfer ownership in the next 5 years.
The data does not provide state-specific information, but it does provide region-level statistics, which I’ve analyzed for the Midwest. Here in the Midwest, we see that 346,000 farmland landlords (50.2% of farmland landlords) have never farmed – owning 23.8 million acres – while 37.1% of landlords are retired from farming and 12.7% are actively farming.
Figure 1: Farmland Rentals by Landlord Farming Background (2024)
We also learn that 18 million acres in the Midwest are expected to change hands in the next 5 years. However, few of these acres are going to be openly for sale, with 86% going into trust. 10% of the expected transferred acres over the next 5 years (or 1.87million acres) will be openly for sale, and the remaining 4 percent will be for sale to family members.
Finally, the data shows that midwestern farmland rentals are primarily structured as fixed cash leases, and share leases – which tie rent to yield – cover only 14% of acres. Most of the tenants are long term, with only 19.9% of the tenants having been with the landlord less than 5 years – suggesting stable (and relatively illiquid) lease markets that do not shift frequently.
Figure 2: Midwest Farmland Lease Structure and Tenure Length (2024)
Minnesota’s corporate farm law notably keeps corporations from owning farmland. However, MFU has continued pushing for more action on land prices, including through recent testimony from Vice President Anne Schwagerl on a bill to require a Minnesota land trends report.
“I’ve even seen ads on Facebook and Instagram saying things like, ‘Invest in farmland—you’ll get better returns than the stock market,’” Schwagerl told members of the House Agriculture Committee. “I certainly notice those, and I find them concerning.”